The 18-year-old defenceman ended up dropping a 3-1 decision to Jaylen Luypen of the Edmonton Oil Kings in the second round of the NHL 21 Playstation 4 online video game tournament involving all 60 Canadian Hockey League teams.
In a contest that was close from the opening puck drop, Luypen was able to use his slick player control skills to maintain momentum much of the game, limiting King’s chances and successfully ragging off time once he got control of the puck.
Jake Neighbours opened scoring for Edmonton on the power play at the 12:25 mark of the first period, stripping the puck from a Warriors defender at the blueline, weaving his way into the slot and rifling a shot high to the glove side of Warriors goaltender Brock Gould.
Luypen himself made it 2-0 Oil Kings with 4:29 to play in the first, pulling the puck out of a scramble high on the half-wall, breaking into the slot untouched and beating Gould short side.
The score wouldn’t remain there for long, as the Warriors would get on the board with 2:10 left in the opening frame. Kyle Crosbie beat his defender wide to the outside and fed a backdoor pass to Josh Hoekstra, who made no mistake beating Sebastian Cossa to pull Moose Jaw within one.
Edmonton quickly restored the two-goal lead in the second. Matthew Robertson picked up the puck along the blue line and again found a space in traffic, beating Gould with a low shot just over a minute into the frame.
King started to find his stride in the third, drawing a penalty midway through the period, but was unable to create any sustained pressure as Luypen ran down the minutes. The Warriors would manage a handful of chances through the game’s last 10 minutes but would get no closer.
Final stats for the contest were unavailable.
King had opened the event with a 5-2 win over Kyrell Sopotyk of the Kamloops Blazers on Dec. 5.
Luypen was unable to keep things rolling for the Oil Kings as he would fall to Brendan Hoffmann of the OHL’s Erie Otters in the division final.
Lukas Svejkovsky of the Medicine Hat Tigers is the last member of the Western Hockey League remaining in the tournament, having advanced to the best-of-three semifinal round against Ty Collins of the Mississauga Steelheads. The other semifinal will feature QMJHL’s Acadia-Bathurst’s Dylan Champagne duelling Justin O’Donnell from the OHL’s Saint John Sting.
The Medicine Hat / Mississauga will be played Dec. 15, with game one at 6:15 p.m., game two at 6:50 p.m. and game three if necessary at 7:25 p.m. The other semifinal runs on Dec. 16 at the same time.
The championship final will take place on Dec. 17.
All games are broadcast on Twitch and Facebook Live.
